How to deal with unexpected situations?

Stephanie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

How to deal with unexpected situations?

unexpected situations.jpg

Hello everyone,

 

From time to time, unexpected situations are always going to crop up, such as your washing machine taking one look at the huge pile of washing and deciding to give up the go or your guests arriving much later than expected! You can’t prevent these from happening entirely, but there are some things you can put in place to minimise the risk of them happening and ways to help deal with them if they do.  

 

Things like great communication and doing regular home maintenance, along with some handy lists of emergency support numbers for local repair companies or plumbers are just a few examples. 

 

What things do you have in place to help you deal with unexpected situations?

 

Looking forward to hearing from you. 

 

Stephanie

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73 Replies 73

Yes, @Sarah977  I just recently experienced this and it wasn't a great experience.  I've heard several others say just deny all requests by local people, and they are right.  Some of these people don't realize that we pay, and in my case a lot to get my carriage house Airbnb ready (e.g. turned a bad renter situation with unpaid rent and multiple damaged appliances situation into an Airbnb. ) I had just purchased really nice large-sized spa quality shampoo, conditioner, and body wash for the shower in the unit and a local young music "artist" asked to rent the unit for a weekend.  He ended up having a TON of people come back to the unit but not all at the same time so couldn't justify it as a party. Honestly I don't want to watch the unit constantly.  I trust that people are doing good, and being good people and unless something glaring surfaces and I just make sure they know I'm right there for them if they need anything, and thanks to OCD I get to clean clean clean afterwards.  He ended up leaving after the to get my carriage house Airbnb ready and took with him all the bathroom products.  Full size bottles in BULK! Renters don't understand that in addition to all the time spent maintaining a unit if an issue occurs it's a lot more time and effort, and unnecessary stress.  I want each of my renters to have an amazing experience.  The thought that someone could have ruined the experience for someone else... Now I've learned to make sure I have everything in bulk, at least 1-2 backups just in case. In this case he did admit to taking it... it was "one of my mom's favorite products so I took it.  Hope that's ok."  I'm glad to know your mom has good taste but that was not appropriate taking from the carriage house and you need to replace it or reimburse me today.  He said he would. I followed up multiple times but to no avail.  Submitted the request officially through Airbnb along with receipts showing the products purchased and cost/sales tax.  Then 24 hours later submitted the claim (you have to give the tenant 24 hours to do right by the request before formal claim submission), and it was instantly approved and paid out by Airbnb.  Save your receipts, Hosts!  - Ryan

I had a person abuse the laundry rule too.  Too bad they fouled up the amenity by being so selfish.  But at least now I  they cannot get to my machines.

Susan151
Level 10
Somerville, MA

@Stephanie . For me the unexpected isn't actually unexpected. Every host that is fully booked needs to have back up systems ready to go. For me, this has meant a storage area with backup duvet covers, bed linens, towels, dishes, silverware, glassware, shower curtains, bathroom rugs.... anything that a guest could stain, break or ruin, in its original packaging ready to be brought online on a moment's notice.

 

The washing machine, ah the washing machine, gave up the ghost during our second week of hosting. No time to find a sale or bargain for the best price. Nope. We simply needed to research which machine we wanted, find it, and have it delivered as quickly as possible. I don't have a backup fridge, for example, but I know where I would go if it was required. Last week, a guest took apart our bathroom sink drain and the set screw went out the pipes. Who would have thought we needed to have a back up? I didn't. We have ordered a replacement, plus one. I will always have a back up going forward.

 

I don't have a list of emergency folks for guests since I live here. There is no way I want guests having anything to do with home maintenance. Gosh, some of them have trouble finding the bus stop! Can't imagine allowing them to negotiate with a plumber or electrician. I shudder to imagine such a scenario.

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Wise words here, @Susan151. I like that you have put a lot of thoughts into this and actually turned unexpected situations into things that you can easily cater for if they crop up. 

 

Out of interest did you think about this when you first started hosting or has it been something you have acquired over time?


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@Lizzie wrote:

 

Out of interest did you think about this when you first started hosting or has it been something you have acquired over time?


I knew that I needed double of my linens, for example, but the first “mascara incident” taught me that I needed unused in reserve as well. I then analyzed everything that I needed for each guests and upped the amount of “stuff” I have in storage. Much of it has never been touched, but Murphy’s Law dictates that without a reserve it would have been needed!

Susan1404
Level 10
Covington, GA

@Stephaniemy very first unexpected situation just happened this evening.  My guests came in this evening to a cabin that was blazing hot because the air condition unit malfunctioned.  We are in the middle of a severe drought and a terrible heat wave with record breaking temps for this time of the year.  Because it will be tomorrow before my repairman can come out, there was no choice but to offer a refund and let them find a hotel room.  Their booking is thru Thursday and they said if it was repaired, they would prefer to return tomorrow afternoon.  They  have stayed with me two times before and everything was just fine.  So now, I have to hope that the air condition unit can be repaired by tomorrow evening.

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Oh no @Susan1404, my fingers and toes are crossed on it getting repaired. It's nice that you know your guests well and they are eager to get back into your listing. 🙂 

 

Do you think there is anything that could help prevent this in future? 

 

Also, do you have any recommendations on how to deal with your guests when this does happen? 

 

 

Best of luck with this. 


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Thank you for the last 7 years, find out more in my Personal Update.


Looking to contact our Support Team, for details...take a look at the Community Help Guides.

@Lizzie- I honestly believe this was unavoidable due to our extreme weather.  The AC units are in good condition, but one was a little low on freon (coolant).  It was serviced on schedule earlier this summer, but because of our continuing heat wave, it has run daily for hours at a time.  Sometimes mechanical issues will happen no matter how much servicing is done, much like vehicles.  Everything is now repaired and in good order, guests are due back here within the next hour or so, and I'm feeling a lot of relief.  I did run to the grocery store and buy them some ice cream as my way of trying to make amends over and above a refund.  It is still prime ice cream weather here. 🙂

Jackie101
Level 2
Towcester, United Kingdom

Even the best and newest air con can fail! I have some fans just in case of an air con failure and some people acrtually prefer them..

Same thing happened last night.  10PM they called that AC was not working.  How should I compensate them? One night refund and flowers, gift card or ice cream?  Thanks for the suggestions.  

Same thing here.  It was only one night, but how should I compensate the guests? Just one night refund or not? Flowers, giftcard? 

Ann72
Level 10
New York, NY

@Stephanie Oh yes!  See my post about one week of the unexpected, https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/A-Week-in-the-Life-of-a-Remote-Host/m-p/1087553

 

My housekeeper and caretaker (who luckily live together!) have this list with names and numbers:

Screenshot 2019-09-25 16.08.29.png

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

That's super handy @Ann72 and very organised. 🙂 I stayed in an Airbnb last weekend, and they had a number for a local plumber and emergency numbers, I haven't seen this in many of the other places I've stayed.

 

Do you think it helps to have regular maintenance checks on your listings and also the appliances? 


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Thank you for the last 7 years, find out more in my Personal Update.


Looking to contact our Support Team, for details...take a look at the Community Help Guides.

@Lizzie That was nice of the hosts to leave those numbers.  I would guess most don't do it because they don't want unnecessary calls to very expensive plumbers?

 

Yes, I do think it helps to keep things maintained.  I don't really check the appliances except for running them regularly, but I have the boiler checked and maintained every year, and because we have well water we have filters that have to be kept clean of grit.  The generators are checked every week and they're set to do test runs periodically.  In general, deferred maintenance is death to a house, so if there's anything wrong we get it looked at or fixed right away.

@Ann72  @Lizzie  Yeah, I can just see a guest doing a $200 call-out to a plumber because the toilet flapper got stuck in the up position. Or calling the electrician because they plugged too many things into one circuit and the breaker flipped. Letting guests have access to those numbers and thinking they can just call if they want to could be a total horror show.

As to maintenance, I'm definitely a preventative maintenance person. I have $15 stand-up fans that have been running for 10 years. Most people just take them to the dump when they start running slow, they figure the motor is burnt out. I take mine apart a couple times a year, vacuum out the dust and cobwebs and oil the shaft and replace the capacitors once every 2 or 3 years (they're the size of a matchbox and cost about $2), which is a matter of undoing 2 little wire nuts and wiring on the new capacitor. It takes a whopping 5 minutes.